By Any Other
by FuckMePumps
Summary: [Appearances can be very misleading] Your blood is pooling, the red is such a beautiful shade... won't you let me use it, exploit it like I did you? Robin's been acting strange, but not as much as Raven is. RobRae, slightRobStar. Read and be fooled.


**a/n **Written for Athena's Wing's challenge, with the prompt as #4 Portrait. Hope you get it, and like it, of course.

**disclaimer **I don't own the Teen Titans, nor do I own any of Emily Dickenson's works. I, however, own the song 'lyrics' used in the duration of this fic.

-

She watched the dirty water swirl into a whirlpool in the middle of the sink, apathetic as the clean stream washed the dirt and chunks of food from the plates. The dishwasher was broken, and until the new one arrived from the Mayor they were stuck doing the chores themselves. She sang under her own breath to relieve the boredom that was not too terrible, not too light, just somewhere in between.

"_Your blood is pooling, the red is such a beautiful shade, won't you let me--"_

"Raven."

She looked irritatingly at him. She didn't like being interrupted, though he didn't really know he was doing so. She sighed, smelling the unnamable scent of leftover pizza, air-conditioning, and paper that was the signature of the Tower's common room.

"What, Robin?" She snapped, feeling more than put off. This was making her stall with the dishes, and the soap-water was already, uncomfortably, wrinkling her skin.

Then he crumpled his face in that damnable smirk of his in a sorry excuse for a reply, then shook off the newspaper he was holding. He turned his head from her, like she wasn't waiting for his response.

"Nothing," and Raven could just hear the chuckles hidden in that word.

-

It wasn't right, really- it was distracting and life-threatening and arbitrary, but she found herself singing again, now in the battlefield.

"_Your blood is pooling, the red is such a beautiful shade, won't you let me use it, exploi--"_

"Raven, look out!" She heard Robin yell, and as she glanced, almost casually, behind her, saw a huge slab of concrete hurtling towards her.

"Azarath Metrion Zinthos!" She said just in time as she summoned the slab to slam into one of the villains instead.

Out of the corner of her eye, Robin took a big, relieved breath and almost smiled at her, then whipped out his bo-staff and went back to fighting.

The combat raged on quite uneventfully, then at some point Raven realized she and Robin had been separated a good distance from the others. Shrugging, she banged two villains together, knocking them unconscious.

As the villains she was engaged with began to dwindle in number, she started to help Robin with his lot, not that he needed it much. That is, until he cast her an unneeded sideways glimpse, the edges of his lips curling upwards, and he was hit and hurled at a nearby alley wall and he slumped to the ground. She counted to five, then decided that he wasn't going to stand up anytime soon and she finished off the rest of the villains, her power laced and strengthened with a silent fury she didn't know was there.

She half-ran, half-walked to him and knelt down, seeing he was already coming to. Other than a bluish purple bruise that was beginning to creep to his forehead, he seemed fine.

"My head hurts," he near-whined, rubbing the offended spot.

"You're lucky it's only your head." Her face was impassive but slightly concerned. Then she gathered an edge to her voice, stretching out her arm for his support.

"What's wrong with you?" She demanded, but he refused the offered hand and leaned on the graffiti-covered wall, supporting his weight on it.

He grunted, crossing his arms stubbornly.

"Why the hell did you do that, Boy Blunder? It could have been worse, you know. You're the one who's always telling us to remain focused, and…"

"Just leave it, okay." His tone was angry, though she doubted it was directed at herself. Still, she wanted to apologize for rambling and lecturing because she remembered she herself hated it when people pestered her about accidental mistakes. She was about to, when he turned away.

"Not like I got what I wanted, anyway…" he mumbled almost inaudibly. He began to walk away, with only traces of wobbling in his steps.

"Let's go," he said with no hint of authority at all. She followed him wordlessly. If this were a movie, there would have been a storm cloud somewhere in the scene.

-

Raven sat across Starfire on her bed, poetry books opened on their laps. It was one of their special 'girl' nights, which Starfire succumbed to in return for dragging Raven to the mall. They exchanged literature and read aloud the pieces they liked best, with Starfire holding on to Raven's Edgar Allen Poe while it was Raven's turn to read from Emily Dickenson.

"_I have a Bird in spring, which for myself doth sing -- The spring decoys. And as the summer nears -- And as the Rose appears, Robin is gone…"_

"Friend Raven, may you repeat that last sentence?" Starfire asked with a sincerely curious expression.

Raven breathed deeply. _"And as the summer nears-- And as the Rose appears, Robin is gone…"_

Starfire's face was still pondering. "The last phrase, perhaps?"

Raven suppressed an eye-roll, though she was more because of habit than annoyance. The alien had really grown on her. _"And as the Rose appears, Robin is gone…" _She looked up. "There?"

"Um, for the final time, the last three words? Please?" Her eyes widened, the emerald in them sparkling.

"Ugh. Fine. _Robin is gone…" _She snapped the book shut. "Now, can you tell me what that was about?"

Starfire poked her two index fingers timidly. "It might seem foolish to you, Friend Raven."

"I didn't go through all that trouble for nothing." She crossed her arms and leaned back on a pillow.

Starfire was hopeful. "Are you doing the 'X'-ing of the lungs and wish to color your hair?"

It took Raven a couple of seconds to get it. "Yes, Starfire, I cross my heart and hope to die."

The redheaded girl lay down, her crimson locks fanning over Raven's black sheets like a blood river. "I have just noticed, but… do you… this will seem quite ridiculous, but…"

She sat up abruptly. "DoyouhardboranyfeelingsforFriendRobin?"

Now it only took the daughter of Trigon a fraction of a second to get it, a blush immediately flying over her cheeks unexplainably. Fortunately, she retained her detached composure.

"Starfire, that's absurd. You know you two are made for each other." She began to flip the pages of the volume she held, not really reading, but merely to have an excuse not to look the other girl in the eye.

Starfire was now beaming. "Well, friend, it is because… there is a certain way you say his name. That's all."

Raven raised an eyebrow. "A certain way I say his name? W-what do you mean?"

The Tamaranean twirled a lock of her hair between her fingers. "Well… you… I cannot explain. Maybe you should see for yourself sometime, Friend Raven." She propped herself up with her arms, lying on her stomach.

"Now, shall I paint your nails purple or red?" With the earlier discussion completely forgotten, but not for the paler girl.

-

It was back to the beginning again, with Raven washing the dishes and not seeming to take her mind off her conversation with Star last week and Robin, sitting obliviously on the couch. She hummed the tune for a while, then the words slipped from her mouth and into a melody.

"_Your blood is pooling, the red is such a beautiful shade, won't you let me use it, exploit it like I did you?_

"_Here you are, let me paint your face, with the--" _

"With the what? Come on, I've been dying to hear the rest of that song," spoke an arrogant, determined voice that she could recognize even if she was deaf.

Robin had draped his lean frame on the wall beside the sink, smirking like a god. She tried to ignore him and concentrate on her task; it wasn't easy, because his aura radiated so strongly off him she could feel him to her soul.

"Robin." She said flatly. For some reason, he grinned widely.

"_Your know every word you utter is a memory, I'll put myself in danger so that you would call for me; You're shouting out my name, but I won't answer just yet; I want to hear you say it again…" _He sang, with a deep vibrato she didn't know he had, surprising her so much she almost dropped the plate she anchored under the faucet.

"Robin," she said again, but stunned this time. He went nearer, slowly, tantalizingly, like a predator stalking its prey.

"Why have you been avoiding me?" Demandingly, when he was just a foot away from her. She stood, facing him, a plate held up to her chest as if for protection.

"I have?" She questioned, bewildered.

"Yeah." A step closer, his face upset. "For exactly seven days now, whenever you walk past me it seems like you're off daydreaming someplace else, and you never talk to me anymore AND you don't say my name."

"I… don't?"

"Yeah. You don't."

"So?"

He balanced on the balls of his feet. "Tell me, Raven, what am I to you?"

"E-excuse me? Are y-you se-serious? Robin!" She sputtered uncharacteristically.

He smiled knowingly. "There. Thanks for telling me, Rae."

She set the plate down, completely baffled. "I didn't tell you anything."

The smirk was back, and so was another step. "Oh really? Then what was that, _Robin_, like me tolerating your herbal tea meant a lot to you? _Robin_, like you're okay with my insomnia and late night rampages? _Robin, _like you really, really cared about me? Do your _Robin_s mean anything, Rae, or am I just dreaming?"

Her slightly agape mouth was the only answer he got. He continued.

"And then you stop, suddenly. How is a person supposed to live with that? Without your stupid _Robin_s, describing me like how I actually am, knowing me better than anyone even myself, with that little smile of yours and how the 'R' of my name just rolls off your tongue like a curse?"

By now he had her cornered with her back against the wall, his hands trapping her sides, she who wasn't ready to react just yet, faces inches from the other's.

He gave a short, mock laugh. "Damn. Now I'm getting poetic. See what you're doing to me?"

_Your blood is pooling, the red is such a beautiful shade; won't you let me use it, exploit it like I did you? _

The song was coming true now, too astonishing, too impossible, too much like the life of the moment.

"Raven, didn't you realize how?" His lips brushing hers now; the contact sweet and light and breathtaking.

_Here you are, let me paint your face with the sound of your name; your portrait will be real and the loveliest one yet…_

"H-how what?" Her first words in minutes, her heart beating surreally in her chest. Subtly she was aware of the overflowing water from the sink, the silent heat from the malfunction of the Tower air-condition, the kitchen lights too bright overhead, but he was so close, so alive, so here…

"How you say my name?" He lunged in for the kill.

"Robin…!"

And his lips caught hers before she can say anything else.

_fin_

-

**a/n **There.Hope I get my point across, and that it wasn't too OOC. This didn't turn out the way it was supposed to; it was supposed to be about how Raven saying Robin's name was like painting his portrait aka the imprint of soul with her voice, but it kinda took a wrong, weird turn and I end up with this… half-decent thing. I think. Anyway, please, 'cause I did put some effort into this fic,

_**REVIEW!**_


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